How to approach those issues helped define differences between state Sen. David Argall, R-26, and Tim Seip, his Democratic challenger.

Seip, a former state representative, hopes to unseat Argall from his 26th Senate District, which encompasses parts of Monroe, Northampton and Carbon counties, among other areas.

At a recent editorial board meeting at the Pocono Record, the two outlined positions on key issues and what they thought were the most pressing ones facing voters.

"It doesn't matter where I go, people always say the same thing: 'What are you going to do about the school tax? It's unbearable,'" said Argall, who has made abolishing school tax a major part of his platform.

According to a study by the Tax Foundation research group, Pennsylvania has the 11th highest property taxes in the nation. Argall said he would eliminate Pennsylvania's school taxes by broadening the state's sales tax to include more items and by increasing the tax to 7 percent from 6 percent.

He also supports legislation that aims to eliminate school tax by raising personal income tax by 1 percent.

"We have to do all we can to cut out the heart of the beast," said Argall, referring to school taxes.

But Seip, who represented Pennsylvania's 125th House District for two terms, said that Argall's plan to eliminate school taxes goes too far, as it involves eliminating the school taxes levied on every single piece of property a person owns — be it a home, office building or lot. Such a sweeping move would seem to favor the wealthy.

Seip also wants to eliminate school taxes, he said, but only the school taxes that are levied on a person's primary home.

"Your home is something that is sacred. You shouldn't have to worry about not being able to pay your taxes on it," he said.

Seip said he, too, would broaden the state's sales tax to include more items, if doing so helped eliminate the school taxes levied on people's primary residences. Seip said he would not seek to raise personal income taxes.

Argall said he believed the measures he supported in the Senate have led to more money being available for infrastructure improvements.

He said he has backed measures that forced the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to be more economical, and forced the agency to "stretch all the money" Harrisburg allots to it.

Seip said he would pay for infrastructure improvements by "looking at the money that was left on the table" during budget time. But then he quickly said that he felt many more infrastructure improvements could have been made if a severance tax had been imposed on gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale.

"This state lost billions because this tax wasn't passed," Seip said.

The state did pass an impact fee, instead of a tax, on each gas well drilled in the Marcellus Shale. According to recent report released by the state Public Utility Commission, this fee has raised more than $200 million in 2011.

Argall — and the majority of Republicans in the statehouse — had supported making natural gas companies pay an "impact fee" on the wells they operate. Natural gas companies find an impact fee, essentially a large one-time payment that must be made on a well.

Argall said that he believed a severance tax would have scared away natural gas companies.

"They would do more drilling in North Dakota or West Virginia and say, 'We'll come back to Pennsylvania in 20 years.'" he said. "I don't think the solution is to tax the industry to death."

But Seip said that the state has "miserably mishandled" the Marcellus Shale drilling issue. He said natural gas companies would not have been dissuaded by a severance tax.

"This is second-largest natural gas deposit in the world. They would do anything to drill here," he said.

Comparing the natural gas to sugar, drillers to bugs and the higher severance tax to pesticides, he said: "If I throw a plate of sugar out here, we would attract all kinds of insects and bugs. And if we sprayed some Raid beside it, I bet we would still attract a fair number of insects."

Argall said he cut his staff from 12 to 8 in his time in office, saving as much as $250,000 a year. He said he effectively took a $26,000 pay cut when he gave up his previous House leadership post.

Seip said he was likewise frugal with the public's money when he was in office. He said he sought $2 chairs and $10 desks from state warehouses to outfit his office and helped haul the furniture himself.

"I went to every length I could to minimize expenses," he said.

When it came to jobs, there was more contrasting opinion.

Seip, a former social worker who teaches at Kutztown University, said some of the bills Argall supported hurt Pennsylvanians. For example, many public sector jobs shrank, and teachers and school workers were fired because the public money wasn't there.

But Argall defended the voting decisions he made.

"Time and time again," Argall said, "we went to town hall meetings and we asked people, 'What do you want? Do you want us to increase taxes or cut spending?' And time and time again the people said, 'Cut spending.'"